Greyfell
2011-10-17, 09:55 AM
Started Red Hand of Doom for the first time tonight! Woohoo!! Going with my usual Forgotten Realms setting, placing Elsir Vale near the Shining South.
Party as of first session (player name and character):
Jim V, 1/2 orc (? dont remember/forgot to ask lol) Fighter 3/knight 3. Yeah, I know odd levels of fighter are bad, but he's a very very solid player who wanted to play a tactically focused tank/melee guy as a change from his usual. Bastard sword and shield
Chris T. dwarf Homebrew ToB -esque class 6. Basically mix equal parts kensai and swordsage. This is the third time I believe that this character concept is being run as a test of how balanced it is. So far it has no trouble keeping up with the knight as both a damage dealer and tank. Crit fishing with a falchion
Ray M. human Cleric 5 (Red Knight)/combat medic 1. Another very very experienced player, who for reasons that completely elude me., has decided to purposefully turn his character into an uber-healbot. So far the party has been overpowering encounters so well that he's been doing more buffing and smashing, rather then healing.
Dan F. human Sorceror 6. Player who hasn't played for quite some time. Blaster/battlefield control with the Storm Bolt reserve feat and the dungeonscape ACF "spell shield".
Sam A. halfing Bard 6. Loves bards, so far is content to Song of Courage support and skill monkey.
The party rolls the initial encounter "Marauder attack" with no problems whatsoever, even with augmented hellhounds (draconic with multi attack instead of track). The swordsage uses "Step of the wind" stance to get around the heavy brush and close quickly. The Knight purposefully draws both hellhounds onto himself and with a lucky string of criticals, downs them swiftly. The sorcerer secures four survivors as captives with a well placed web. Some intimidate and other manipulation later gets some basic information from them. The party drags the captives with them to Drellin's Ferry.
Good roleplay as the party uses their captives (an obvious sign of fighting the raiders and winning) and the Bard's diplomacy skills to get in good with the leaders of Drellin's Ferry. They sell what loot they can (the town has a very limited cash amount, so it's not a whole lot) and donate much of the extra mundane items to the local militia. Having slain the Redhand cleric and finding his Holy Symbol of Tiamat, they advise the town speaker that his troubles might be more menacing then a simple string of raids by hobgoblin raiders. The party is hired on by the town to scout the local area and see how bad the trouble is. The barter for payment, and recieve a promise of 500 GP each, along with being supplied horses and a decent map of the area.
The captain of the town guard advises them to seek Jorr (a local shady character) in the swamps. While tracking down Jorr, the party encounters a hydra waiting in ambush near a mossy old bridge. The two least observant party members (knight and cleric) actually spot the hydra hiding with some ridiculously lucky rolls, while the other party members who actually have some ranks in Spot fail to see it for quite some time.
The party advances cautiously and the two tanks eventually draw the creature out of the water. The swordsage takes a single nip, but soon after the knight takes three almost maximum damage bites, dealing severe damage but he strikes back hard as well. The Sorcerer pours in some ranged fire support (Melf's and Magic Missile), and just before the hydra would have a chance to move away and do some healing, the Swordsage rushes in and lands a brutal Mountain Hammer Strike to bring it down.
A good bit of roleplay later (and the knight using his handle animals skill) gets them a friendly Jorr to guide them through the swamp and help them find and eliminate goblins and Hobgoblins. We wrap for the night.
observations:
The two tank characters (knight and swordsage) got a ridiculous number of criticals this session, even taking into account that the swordsage has a 15-20 crit with his falchion. Both of them also have an Armor Class in the low twenties (full plate plus dex and/or minor protective items that stack) and only a really good string of lucky rolls allowed even the hydra to do any serious damage.
Also, the Swordsage's "step of the wind" has allowed him to completely ignore the difficult terrain the module seems fond of using to slow down the party. His ability to close with Red Hand grunts and one shot them has sped up the encounters immensely for the party.
Plans:
I will definitely beef up the forces at Vraath Keep. Koth's spells will be better chosen, he'll have the Spell Shield ACF, and his minotaur sub commander will be a boar totem barbarian with some armor. I'm debating some sort of lower level bard and/or marshal leader type to help the HobGoblin grunts have some chance in melee.
Party as of first session (player name and character):
Jim V, 1/2 orc (? dont remember/forgot to ask lol) Fighter 3/knight 3. Yeah, I know odd levels of fighter are bad, but he's a very very solid player who wanted to play a tactically focused tank/melee guy as a change from his usual. Bastard sword and shield
Chris T. dwarf Homebrew ToB -esque class 6. Basically mix equal parts kensai and swordsage. This is the third time I believe that this character concept is being run as a test of how balanced it is. So far it has no trouble keeping up with the knight as both a damage dealer and tank. Crit fishing with a falchion
Ray M. human Cleric 5 (Red Knight)/combat medic 1. Another very very experienced player, who for reasons that completely elude me., has decided to purposefully turn his character into an uber-healbot. So far the party has been overpowering encounters so well that he's been doing more buffing and smashing, rather then healing.
Dan F. human Sorceror 6. Player who hasn't played for quite some time. Blaster/battlefield control with the Storm Bolt reserve feat and the dungeonscape ACF "spell shield".
Sam A. halfing Bard 6. Loves bards, so far is content to Song of Courage support and skill monkey.
The party rolls the initial encounter "Marauder attack" with no problems whatsoever, even with augmented hellhounds (draconic with multi attack instead of track). The swordsage uses "Step of the wind" stance to get around the heavy brush and close quickly. The Knight purposefully draws both hellhounds onto himself and with a lucky string of criticals, downs them swiftly. The sorcerer secures four survivors as captives with a well placed web. Some intimidate and other manipulation later gets some basic information from them. The party drags the captives with them to Drellin's Ferry.
Good roleplay as the party uses their captives (an obvious sign of fighting the raiders and winning) and the Bard's diplomacy skills to get in good with the leaders of Drellin's Ferry. They sell what loot they can (the town has a very limited cash amount, so it's not a whole lot) and donate much of the extra mundane items to the local militia. Having slain the Redhand cleric and finding his Holy Symbol of Tiamat, they advise the town speaker that his troubles might be more menacing then a simple string of raids by hobgoblin raiders. The party is hired on by the town to scout the local area and see how bad the trouble is. The barter for payment, and recieve a promise of 500 GP each, along with being supplied horses and a decent map of the area.
The captain of the town guard advises them to seek Jorr (a local shady character) in the swamps. While tracking down Jorr, the party encounters a hydra waiting in ambush near a mossy old bridge. The two least observant party members (knight and cleric) actually spot the hydra hiding with some ridiculously lucky rolls, while the other party members who actually have some ranks in Spot fail to see it for quite some time.
The party advances cautiously and the two tanks eventually draw the creature out of the water. The swordsage takes a single nip, but soon after the knight takes three almost maximum damage bites, dealing severe damage but he strikes back hard as well. The Sorcerer pours in some ranged fire support (Melf's and Magic Missile), and just before the hydra would have a chance to move away and do some healing, the Swordsage rushes in and lands a brutal Mountain Hammer Strike to bring it down.
A good bit of roleplay later (and the knight using his handle animals skill) gets them a friendly Jorr to guide them through the swamp and help them find and eliminate goblins and Hobgoblins. We wrap for the night.
observations:
The two tank characters (knight and swordsage) got a ridiculous number of criticals this session, even taking into account that the swordsage has a 15-20 crit with his falchion. Both of them also have an Armor Class in the low twenties (full plate plus dex and/or minor protective items that stack) and only a really good string of lucky rolls allowed even the hydra to do any serious damage.
Also, the Swordsage's "step of the wind" has allowed him to completely ignore the difficult terrain the module seems fond of using to slow down the party. His ability to close with Red Hand grunts and one shot them has sped up the encounters immensely for the party.
Plans:
I will definitely beef up the forces at Vraath Keep. Koth's spells will be better chosen, he'll have the Spell Shield ACF, and his minotaur sub commander will be a boar totem barbarian with some armor. I'm debating some sort of lower level bard and/or marshal leader type to help the HobGoblin grunts have some chance in melee.